"Hey, it's Nathan!" The kid speaking into the mic introduces himself, looking into the camera with a wide grin.
"Nick!" The guitarist to the right follows,
"Andre!" The guitarist to the left follows,
"Ivan." The drummer introduces quietly,
"And Light Service is back after…how long?" Nathan asked, looking around at his bandmates for help.
"Like, 2 weeks, I think?" Ivan tried to provide, rubbing his face with his hands.
"Yeah, 2 weeks," Andre nods in agreement, tying his hair up into a bun, guitar hanging haphazardly from his shoulder.
"So, it's been 2 weeks but, we're back! As you guys can see, I'm not on the piano today so, me and Nick switched places—"
"Because he's dog shit at guitar—!" Nathan smiles, hoisting his leg up.
"Yeah, sure. Anyway, we're gonna be doing some—drumroll please, Ivan,"
Ivan let out a tiny smile before banging on the drums.
"Two Door Cinema Club!" Nathan finishes before Nick can get to it.
"Really? I thought we were doing Carly Rae Jepsen?" Andre asked as he started to mess around with the papers of tabs in front of him with fake confusion.
"Shut up!" Nathan chuckled, shifting on his stool. Andre huffed out a laugh before sitting back up on his stool.
"Are you guys ready?" The black haired boy twisted back, clutching at the microphone. The drummer behind him nods, shaking out his trembling fingers, grabbing his sticks. Nathan props his leg up, resting the guitar onto it. Andre hopped off the stool, pushing it aside and his fingers took position.
"One, two, three, go!" Ivan tapped his drumsticks, voice finally finding a steady ground.
Andre's fingers flew on the fretboard as he did the beginning riff, jump-starting the first few moments of the song. Ivan smiled as he played, jumping in his seat to the rhythm. It didn't take long before Nathan joined in.
"Holy shit," Mae Greene muttered, watching the youtube video. She had almost slipped on ice about 15 times, distracted by the band's music video.
"Are you sure these guys are from our school?" Amber Sanchez asked, clutching on Mae. Partly so that way the earphones they were sharing wouldn't slip out but, also because it was cold as balls.
"Nah, like, 73.5% sure—I mean, that's exactly our music room!"
"Our school is so generic that if it were a cereal, it would be sold in a bag." Amber deadpanned, stopping to look at her best friend for a second.
"I feel like I was supposed to get that but, whatever." Amber opens her mouth to explain after Mae shakes her head in confusion but, was interrupted.
"But, like, would any other teacher but Mr. Reese would have a periodic table of elements poster but the elements are replaced with music stuff?" Mae clicks her phone off, lightly stuffing it in her back pocket.
"I feel like you single out our teachers for doing completely normal things."
"Just like how you single out Mrs. Blase—"
"The pullovers, man!" She mutters, underneath her breath, shaking her head. Mae lets a giggle and bumps her body in the other girl's. Amber let out a mixture of a cough and choke at once.
"You alright?"
"Y-yeah. I hate the winter." Amber waves Mae away, forcing out the last round of coughs. Mae looks skeptically at Amber's ripped jeans and cropped sweater before continuing,
"Alright but, you can still last a couple more minutes, right?" Mae asks, lightly tugging Amber's linked arm.
"Heh, probably not." Amber's brain supplies but the girl shakes the thought from her head.
"No, I can. How far is your house anyway?"
"Not far." Mae nodded, flashing a quick, reassuring smile. Amber started furiously rubbing her nose, red starting to appear on her face, quickly stuffing it in her Ravenclaw scarf.
The pair continued in silence, the only thing filling their ears was the sound of freshly fallen snow crunching underneath their boots. Turns out Mae was right and not just estimating in her own special time zone, they ended up at the taller girl's house in only 2 more minutes.
"MAAAAAAA!" Mae screeched at the top of her lungs, banging at the door. Amber glared at Mae as she covered her ears. Although she knew that this was gonna happen, she was still slightly annoyed. All the taller girl did was shrug at her, as if to say "I gotta do what I gotta do."
"Mae!" The girl's mother answered, slightly angry but, at this point, it's common. Mrs. Greene looked to Amber and flashed her a warm smile, almost scarily similar to her daughter's.
"What did I tell you about banging on the door?" Mrs. Greene breathes in deeply, letting it out in one big sigh.
"Sorry," Mae smiled, tilting her head a bit like a dog knowing what they did wrong, before grabbing Amber's wrist and pulling her through the familiar home.
"You are a nuisance." Amber shakes her head, trying to slide off her scarf as she stumbled through.
"That's how you like me,"
"Yeah…I guess I do." The red-haired girl muttered quietly, shaking her head, shoving her scarf in her pocket, face rapidly heating up with the temperature of the house.
"Ok, ok, ok," Mae rambles excitedly, tumbling into her room, making a rush for her computer chair.
"Are gonna watch more Light Service videos?"
"Hell yea and nah at the same time."
"I don't think you realize how much not-sense you make sometimes—"
"We are gonna do some stalking, something in your league, huh?" The girl practically bouncing in her seat turns around dramatically just to wink before whipping back to her illuminated computer screen.
"J. Christ and Mary—it was once!" Amber groans, kicking off her Converse before jumping into her best friend's bed, swallowing her in blankets. Her glasses were smooshed against her face and her boobs were pressed uncomfortably against her chest but, fuck that. She had been stomping around in negative weather with frozen water sticking to every part of her being.
"Ok, alright, whatever—AH HA! TOLD YOU-FUCKING- SO! NATHAN LLOYD AND IVAN KELLY GO TO WESTWOOD TECH!"
All that's heard in response is muffled words of disappointment.
———
"Ivan? You okay there, sweetie?" Nick asks, wincing as he steps gently around the other boy's body. All he gets is a muffled screech before the room is silent again.
"What happened?" Andre sighs,
"M-Madelyn called him adorable while punching him in the arm!" Nathan cackled from the living room's couch, clutching his stomach as his body shook with pure amusement.
"She e-even did the thing!" Ivan shouts, his face turned to lay his cheek on the soft carpet.
"The thing…?" Nick asks, a smile filled with remorse on his face.
"She does this half-smile a-and tilts her head to the side like thE CUTEST DOG TO EVER EXIST!" Ivan's voice cracks halfway but, it doesn't stop him from ranting about, what he calls, the best girl in all of existence.
"Straight people problems, can't relate." Andre sighs, once again, settling into the couch, right next to Nathan.
"You're bi, though—" Nick turns, smile still playing on his face.
"Hush,"
"Being gay is much better cause once you find someone you like, you just dig a hole and live there til' you're over it," Nathan explains, somehow completely turned upside down in his seat. Andre huffed to a laugh and nodded, turning himself so he could rest his head on Nathan's stomach.
Nick moved over to the discarded camcorder on the table and started fiddling with it, trying to find the SD card slot.
"You think this video'll do well?" He asked, popping it open before digging in his back pocket.
"It should. We've been getting a bunch o-of new subscribers and stuff, maybe they're interested in getting to know us?" Ivan tried, finally beginning to pick himself up from off of the ground but, inevitably, let his arms go weak and he collapsed back onto the ground.
"Yes, all of Madelyn's family would love to get to know us." Nathan snickered. With that Ivan let out a squawk that no human male of any size or stature should be able to emit.
"Stop bullying the poor boy, please," Nick begged halfheartedly as he twisted the camera onto the tripod, shuffling it towards the center of the room.
"Yea, Nate, bullying is wrong." Andre reprimanded,
"Weren't you the one who posted a picture of me at ASS O'CLOCK when I looked like 15 different monster trucks took TURNS ON ME—"
"I SAID SORRY!" Andre said when he was finally done laughing his head off.
"Ivan, get up buddy, we have a video to shoot," Nick whispers, squatting next to the possibly passed out figure with a reassuring hand on his back.
Ivan gives out a groan before rolling onto his back.
"Let's get this bread." He groaned, an arm over his eyes.
The room is silent for at least a millennium before it erupted into nonstop laughter.
———
"Okay, number 20…oh shit." Ivan read from behind the camera.
"What?" The other boys ask, all on the couch.
"We're gonna get argumentative in this !@#$%." He solemnly explains in response, a bleep being placed over his curse word.
"Which is the best Disney movie?"
"Oh, that's easy." Nick mutters,
"On the count of three, boys." Andre smiles, knowing damn well the hell he's about to unleash
"3, 2, 1," Nathan counts down, smiling right along with Andre.
"Wreck It Ralph!"
"Frozen, plain and simple,"
"Beauty and the Beast."
There was a beat of silence before the storm came. Before Nick allowed all of the 7 circles of hell within him to unleash
"arE YOU !@#$%^& KIDDING ME? WRECK IT RALPH? BEAUTY AND THE BEAST?" He shouted at the top of his lungs, launching out of his seat on the couch. Andre burst out in laughter as Nathan gripped the couch in pure fear. He knew Nick was passionate but, not this passionate.
"HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FAMILY-FRIENDLY !@#$%^& STOCKHOLM SYNDROME FURRY FILLED FLICK!"
"THE MOVIE DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE IN IT'S OWN !@#$%^& RIGHT! DID NONE OF THE FAMILIES NOTICE WHEN THEIR HUSBANDS AND WIVES JUST DISAPPEARED, NONE OF THEM THOUGH 'HMM, LEMME CHECK THE TOWER WHERE THEY WERE LAST FOUND' NONE OF THEM WENT TO CHECK IT OUT? I'M SO—" Nick interrupted himself with a high pitched screech before quickly continuing.
"AND THE PURE SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN GASTON AND LE FOU BUT THE DISNEY EXECS WERE !@#$%^& COWARDS, THE ABSOLUTE !@#$%, !@#$%^&*, I'M SO PISSED!"
"DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THAT FLIMSY EXCUSE OF LGBTQ+ REP IN THE LIVE ACTION—DON'T THINK I LET THAT SLIDE! I'M—" Nick screeched again.
"FROZEN WAS A BEAUTIFUL MOVIE ABOUT HOW YOU DON'T NEED TRUE LOVE TO LIVE YOUR LIFE! IT WAS ABOUT HOW LEARNING TO LOVE YOURSELF WAS FIVE TIMES MORE IMPORTANT AND YOU'RE SECONDING THAT TO BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? I WILL RIP YOU APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Nick's voice was beginning to go raspy,
"Nick, Nick, Nick, shhh, it's alright. Save your voice, we're recording a video tomorrow." Andre says, shoulders shaking with a rabid laughter, turning to wink at the camera on that last part (he just looked like he was having an aneurysm). Nathan was stuck in his seat, mouth wide open, he'd never heard his once innocent friend swear…ever.
"OKAY! I think that's enough for today!" Ivan laughed nervously.
"You never talked about Wreck It Ralph, though." Andre spat out from around his laughter.
"Oh, Wreck It Ralph is an amazing film, not as good as Frozen but, amazing in its own right." Nick explained calmly settling back into his seat, patting his hair down and dusting imaginary dust off of his pants.
"O-okay. So…question 22."
"What about question 21?" Nick furrowed his eyebrows
"Question 21 was best anime and I don't want Nathan and Andre to start b-battling again."
"I still have the dent in my wall, by the way!" Nathan shouts, a wide smile on his face.
"Question 22, When was the last time you cried?"
"5 seconds ago." Andre declared firmly.
"Yesterday night, my dog boop-ed his nose with mine and right after he blep-ed—just thinking about is is making me sob." Nick reminisced
"Childbirth."
And those were Nathan's last words before getting exposed for all his life's worth.